Sunday's second attack hits Lucrecia, continuing to cut away at the large creature's flesh.
Outside in the corridor, the sounds of Vale and Kaven battling give way to shouts and frantic footfalls as they both disappear into the tunnel beyond.
"Bloody lamia excrement! What had those people done to deserve such a sacrifice?" reassured by Lucrecia's evilness, Delendir shots with renewed precision and rage over the woman "That was the last of your sacrifices lamia of hell!"
Observing Elisai to fall, Ghina valiantly flies next to Lucrecia and attacks in a rage of beaks and talons trying to entertain the lamia enough time to be defeated.
Krysta was aggravated when all of her attacks missed the stupid serpent woman. She wasn't about to give up though and unleashed a nother fury of bites, claws, and smacks.
Two of Delendir's arrow land on the lamia matriarch, but do not critically strike her. Krysta also nearly critically strikes Lucrecia, but she moves quickly aside and only allows the blow to scrap her neck.
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As she watches the battle unfold Yavenee focuses on Sunday, beginning a resonating chant that begins to build.
Lucrecia looks around her and takes note of the witch's spell choice. With a frown she mocks, "Well I'm afraid that's time for me to join my sister now. We'll both see you quite soon, please don't dally too long!"
She takes a 5' step back and glances down at the unconscious form of Elisai on the floor, studying her as a devious smirk slowly spreads across her lips. "Why, I think I'll take this one with me to ensure my departure. Follow me and I'll rip her head from her body. Stay down here and take some time to rest and I'll deposit her safely at the gates. Your choice."
She casts a spell as she bends over and places her hand on Elisai's body and they both begin to disappear.
Krysta wasn't happy that the stupid snake woman was going to flee and as she began to cast her spell Krysta lashed out with her teeth. It was unfortunate that the serpentine b*+~* had moved like she did but there was little to be done for it. As her jaws lashed out and snapped down Krysta managed to take a chunk out of the tail in front of her and tried to hold on and hoped she would get drug through with the spell so she could try and save Elisai.
Vividly remembering what happened to the others in the snakes clutches Sunday snarled as he stepped forward to swing at where the woman had been.
The snake lady screams in pain as Krysta lands one final attack on her. Expending all of her will to maintain her spell, she is reacts without thinking and breaks the connection with the fallen unconscious woman. She screams in frustration as she vanishes from sight, leaving Elisai's body still prone on the floor.
Sunday blurs forward in a flash and in rapid succession slams his sword into the space that the lamia matriarch was standing in only a second before, but she's gone.
Out in the tunnels beyond, Vale can be heard running after Kaven with hurtling death threats at him in the chase.
From inside the cages Shalelu calls out, "Krysta? Is it over? Is she gone? Can someone check on Jakardros, he's still not moving!
”Aughh!” letting out a growl of frustration Sunday moves over to the gates to see if they’ll open without a key, if not he’ll begin to look for one.
Pleased at the results of her attack Krysta saw Elisai fall from the snake's grasp as she vanished and said, "Someone tend to her, now!" She made her way to the cells and went with a different tack than Sunday, who seemed to have the keys now, and went to the bars where Jakardos was and burrowed quickly under to check on the man. She shifted forms and knelt next to him as she gently shook him in an effort to get a response. "Jakardos! Hey, wake up."
Running into the chamber, Yavenee draws the healing wand, noting in the back of herr mind the failure of her spell on Sunday.
Shalelu presses herself to the bars anxiously as Krysta burrows under and into Jakardros's cell. Relief washes over her face as he stirs groggily, just as she did. Those the three prisoners are all wounded, all of them appear to be alive.
After a minute of searching through the room where the battle took place, Sunday locates all of the gear that had been stripped off Shalelu and Jakardros as well as the keys to the cells.
Yavenee's healing rouses Elisai, who doesn't know just how close she came to potentially being disappeared forever.
Sunday will use the keys to unlock Shalelu and Jakardos' doors. "Either of you know this guy?" he asks as he moves to open the cell containing the third prisoner.
"Bastard snake!" Delendir shots an arrow but it is too late, it just crashes behind the disappeared lamia into a wall.
"Tend to the wounded! If there is a chance to hunt that snake now I will take it!" the half-elf heads to the room's door and pushes it open, breaking it with all his strength if necessary "Ghina come with me! I will not have a second lamia escaping us! We will teach her Sandpoint's hunter character!"
If possible Delendir will run up the stairs to the highest tower we saw before, up the maps room. From there he will try to snip the lamia hoping she was not able to teleport far away, and made it to the gates where she was planning to leave Elisai.
If the ranger reaches the tall tower unimpeded, he sends Ghina to search for the lamia while he himself looks around trying to spot her before she runs too far away "Ghina show that lamia how we shoantis hunt the snakes in the Varisian plateaus!"
Delendir and Ghina take flight towards the lookout above. Rushing as fast as they can, they reach the top completely out of breath and panting heavily. He quickly searches the around around him, desperate to find the fleeing snake lady.
There? Several hundred feet way, put past the gate the form of a large creature is visible moving away from the fort, but it's impossible to identify what it was. The torrential storm they are in makes visibility extremely limited and everything past the Fort itself is just a blur.
Back in the cells, Jakardros slowly gets to his feet, rubbing the back of his head as he groans occasionally. He looks over at the other unconscious man and his eyes widen. "Klive! I didn't think he made it! Yes, I know this man. He is a fellow Black Arrow. I thought they all had been killed."
"You alive, Klive?" Sunday asks while gently nudging the body with his boot.
"Damn it! Miserable serpent of the nine hells!" Delendir observes the shadow disappearing in the rain in frustration.
"Little friend, you are our only hope. Try to follow her and discover where is she heading, but do not take risks. Return if she discovers you, or if she hides somewhere. I will be in the fort" the half-elf moves his hand up and let's his hawk fly.
Delendir observes for a while until Ghina too disappears in the rain. Then, he heads back to the cells eager to find out how has it resulted for the rest of the group.
Klive groans but eventually gets to his feet. Clearly disoriented he asks what has happened and who you all are. Jakardros attempts to fill in the gaps for everyone. He explains Shalelu and he went down the tunnel, but that's all they remember.
Ghina sets her sights on Lucrecia, flying off into the heavy storm to follow her from afar.
Once Delendir makes it back to the cells he greets with a smile at Jakardros and the other man "It's good to see you are all right. Perhaps you should catch up with Vale and Kaven before they kill each other. I guess you will want to judge him according to your laws, but he basically confessed he has collaborated with the lamia in the fort's fall..."
"What do you remember about the day the fort was taken? We should piece together what happened here..." the ranger looks around to see if any one needs help, specially Elisai "But I think we can say Fort Rannick has been retaken" he smiles on saying that with pride.
"We should hurry up into rebuilding the fort defenses before any lone giant comes back, oh! and we should write Lord-Major Grobaras and told him about the situation and request immediate reinforcements" Delendir looks through the room, picking up any unbroken arrows.
Yavenee continues to heal Elisa. [n]"The lamia tried to run off with you as a trophy or hostage."[/b]
"We should probably go hunt down that traitor at least," Sunday says to no one in particular.
With the cells opened Krysta shifts her form back to it's natural state, relieved that the prisoners were alright. She made a decision to not allow these cages to be easily used again and chomped down on the locks, first mangling, and then ripping them off to chew up and eat. When it was done the horrid screeching of crystal on metal ended and she came out of the cells seemingly satisfied with herself. "There, that is the end of those cells." She looked at Sunday and said, "the traitor can be dealt with later, the snake b*%@@ must die, and her sister must suffer and then die for damaging my horde!"
Sunday arches a brow at the dragon. ”I figured you of all people would want him dead, and he’s right over there. There’s no telling where the snakes slithered to. Not that I’m disagreeing with the course of action for them.”
Elisai nods gratefully, at the healing, still a little groggy after being out for so long. "As much as I desire revenge, perhaps I might need to wait a bit before attacking her again head on."
"I agree. We should be at full strength and prepared when we put and end to those sisters. In the meanwhile, we should deal with the traitor." Yavenee says in agreement with Elisai and Sunday.
Jakardros explains to Delendir that his patrol was delayed from arriving back to the Fort on time. In retrospect, it's possible that Kaven could have divulged information to Lucrecia and the ogres to engineer the delays and prevent their arrival. When they eventually did arrive back at home, he found the Fort under Kreeg control He lost a third of his unit in an attempt to retake the fort, and when they were forced to flee south into the Kreegood, that's when the Grauls captured them. He's sickened from the thought of betrayal from within and can't believe Kaven would do a thing like this.
You find a scroll in a small scroll tube lists numerous citizen names, some of which you recognize as people from Turtleback Ferry. Kaven's name is on this list with a circle around it. The list itself bears only this intriguing header: "Those who have agreed to grant their greed to the master's need."
In addition, there are a few other items which go unclaimed which Jakardros says you may take as thanks for your help in retaking the Fort. These items are:
After returning gear to the captured prisoners and taking care of your wounded, you head back through the tunnels to look for Vale and Kaven. It turns out that Vale caught up with Kaven and prevented him from escaping. Both men are on the ground near the exit of the tunnel, Vale sitting against the wall on the ground and the bloody mess of the traitor lay at his feet unmoving. Both are severely injured, Vale looking up as your group approaches. He explains that Kaven is probably still alive, but he didn't spare him on purpose as much as he's too injured himself to finish him off.
Kaven is dying, but upon Jakardros' request he is quickly stabilized. When Vale objects, the commander speaks firmly. "Let's be clear Vale. Our order follows the tradition of execution via beheading. That is what awaits him, do not let him off so easily."
Turning back to the party, the Black Arrow asks what the party intend to do now. "Most immediately someone needs to make a trip back to Turtleback Ferry and inform Mayor Maelin Shreed of what has happened here. Perhaps some men can be sent to help occupy the Fort until we are able to build up a new group of Arrows."
Aggravated at the need of the humans to rest and delay her vengeance Krysta sighed in aggravation and knew they were right. While she may not need to sleep they most certainly did. "Fine, let's go back."
When they found the pair of injured combatants Krysta was of mixed mind. She didn't care about things like Sunday thought she did. So what if she slept with the traitor, it was fun, why should she be more interested in killing him than the snaky b###@ who damaged her horde.
When the suggestion was made that someone needed to report back to Turtleback Ferry about what had happened Krysta shrugged and said, "Fine, I'll do it. It'll give me something to do while everyone rests. Besides, I can make better time than the rest of you by air."
”And what if one or both of the snakes are there? I’ll go with you.” Sunday says then after a moment adds ”I need the practice.” while pointing at the dragon’s wings.
Delendir rages at the thought that Vale slowed down the Arrows so the fort could be taken "Weak man..."
The half-elf nods at the ideas of Jakardros "It seems like a plan" he turns to Krysta "I do agree with Sunday. I do not like the idea of letting you go alone. I think we should take rest tonight... I am exhausted of fighting" his bowels roar at that point "...and need some of that bacon and potatoes... but we can travel back to Turtleback Ferry tomorrow early morning"
[ooc]Yes, Krysta is impatient and wants to get her vengeance on but sleep seems like something these fleshy two leggeds need so sleep they can have."[/b]
As Sunday talked about going with her, insisted even, Krysta, in her half-elven guise, raised one amethyst colored eyebrow and asked, "Just how fast can you fly Sunday? Can you keep up with me?"
[B]" It would be best for all of us, to rest before pursuing."Yavenee points out.
Sunday shrugs. "As fast as a giant bat can. This is kinda new for me."
At Yavenee's comment he adds "The snakes have slithered away to lick their wounds, and there isn't a pressing reason to hound them, unless you know something we don't, which I don't think you do. Revenge, that rage eating out the inside of your head, it'll be in your dreams, it'll be in your mind when you awaken. Still just as bright. It doesn't go away. Ever."
"I do also insist on sleeping. And we should go all ensemble, we have had very bad experiences when we have split parts" Delendir looks at Jakardros and Shalelu "Although you can scout ahead flying if you wish"
The half-elf will work on fixing the rooms in the up of the fortress for the night, trying to clean as much ogre gore as possible. "We should also do shifts. I can do the first ones, and the Black Arrows can come afterwards" the ranger eats some bacon and bread, who knows where he got that.
Delendir will climb to the highest tower and observe there the night until the shift time. Paying worried attention to Ghina's return.
Despite Krysta and Sunday wanting to leave for the night, the ranger insists everyone stay in one place and rest. After gathering enough supplies to make bedding for everyone, a watch order is decided.
Everyone beds down for the night with Delendir taking the first watch. Unsurprisingly, the storm rages on. As the rain continues to pour down you realize it's been at least three days now since you've seen the sun.
There are no signs of ogres or the snake women, but something strange does happen on Delendir's watch that night. A deep rumble from somewhere the northeast. It can be heard over the rain and constant peels of thunder. If you he didn't know better, he'd swear that was the sounds of hundreds of tons of stone collapsing and pouring down a mountainside somewhere.
The party switches out watches and the rest of the night passes without further incident. In the morning the party takes a quick meal and departs back for Turtleback Ferry. The first thing that you note is that the water in front of the Fort is pouring over the designed area for it and it spills dozens of feet past the Fort itself. Moving further out from the Fort itself, you find the entire ground increasingly soggy and overly saturated.
After two hours of trudging through the mud of the path before you, you party reaches the river and what you find shocks you to the core. Where you before followed a swollen river, something else entirely blocks your path. Somewhere, somehow, a mass of water has been added to the flow of the Skull River and created such a large amount of water that all of the road to the west has been swallowed by the water! It's at least chest-deep in its most irreversible points. Worse, there are clear signs that a massive wave of water washed through here, headed in one direction...Turtleback Ferry.
As the party digests the situation, Ghina finally returns back to Delendir, coasting in from the northeast. Ragged, weary and drenched from her flight, she comes to a rest on the ground near the party.
The headwaters of the Skull River are to the northeast. The same direction that Delendir heard the rumbling sound from the previous night.
Krysta was aggravated at the delay in leaving, she knew she could make the flight far faster than the others could ever hope to keep, even Sunday and his ungainly bat form. They just didn't understand how fast she truly was and arguing wasn't going to get her anywhere. She could always simply go but part of her horde was here now and she was loathe to leave them behind.
As she tried to sleep the young dragon found herself restless and unable to sleep. Truth be told she felt hungry but not for her usual fare. It didn't take her long to realize what the problem was and she felt a pull to go...down. Without pausing she looked at the person on watch and said, "I'll be back later." With that she shifted to her true form, slipped any remaining equipment off, and began to dig straight down.
When dawn came, and everyone had risen, Krysta still wasn't back...
”Did she got lost?” Sunday quips to no one in particular while looking at the dragon sign on the ground. Stomping near it a few times to see if she’d noticed he then shrugs and leaves.
—————
”Does it flood this bad normally through here?” he asks Delendir and Yavenee. When the tired Ghina returns he offers the bird a wave in greeting.
Delendir pays attention to the loud rumbling but he is unable to pierce the rain for anything concluding "By the Old Deadeye, what's going on!" the half-elf grows nervous and remains in tension praying to Father Erastil until his shift comes to an end.
When Delendir wakes up on the morning and sees Kryta nowhere he grows worried "Dragons! She sure took it by her own and left to Turtleback alone. I guess we have no other option than moving on"
"Yesterday night during my shift there was a tremendous noise of rocks breaking." the half-man seems really worried "The mountain protested, it was horrible like Daviren's burps after fiver jars of beer"
The ranger's heart bumps as he sees Ghina landing nearby. Delendir runs to reach her and struggles to contain a hug "Ghina! You made it finally back. I should had never sent you on that dangerous mission..." the half-elf offers his arm for the hawk to climb and rest, and gives her a piece of bacon he has taken from the Fort's supplies "Just rest for now. You have been brave. You will show us were the serpent has hidden, but first... we have to reach Turtleback Ferry they might be in real trouble" he points with his head to the raising waters.
"We have to wade through the waters somehow..." the half-elf looks through the terrain trying to locate a better place to cross.
"I do not think we have the time to build a rowboat. I vote to try wading through the waters" and he starts to pack his most sensitive gear and plan to cross holding it up unless someone has some magics or other creative solution.
"I could ferry you three, if you don't mind clinging to giant bat fur?" Sunday offers.
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Ghina takes the offered food and climbs aboard Delendir to rest her weary body, clearly happy to be reunited with him.
Jakardros observes the flooding with dismay, looking very concerned over the whole business. "No, no, no. This isn't right at all. We've never had more than puddling before, I'm afraid something is very, very wrong here." He turns to look up into the sky at the constant downpour of rain.
Both of the Black Arrows talk with Delendir about the sounds he heard last night, curious of the direction. When he offers a general idea of where it came from, they tell the group that the main branch of the Skull River is in that direction. "Likely something has happened to the river, I can not imagine the rain alone has caused this!"
Vale looks over at the bound and gagged Kaven as if to blame the flooding on the traitor. Looking up at Jakardros he nods back to the fort and pulls his prisoner along with him. Jakardros looks to Shalelu and back to your party. "We're going to stay here and start what we can on the Fort. Make your trip to Turtleback Ferry and deliver our request for help, but it seems they may need help of their own."
He offers his hand to each of you and with a smile offers, "I owe you my life twice over. Should you ever need of me, I shall be there."
After thanking you and bidding you farewell, the two Black Arrows, the traitor and Shalelu head back into Fort Rannick and leave you to deal with your flooding issues.
After Delendir believes he's identified as safe of passage as he can through the waters, the party deliberates on how to proceed. Your dragon has still not returned and you can only imagine how terrible the damage might be downstream in Turtleback Ferry.
Delendir shakes hands with Jakardros "We will see this done and then come back to help you with the fort" he looks back at the river and nods to Daud's suggestion "Well Daud. We are desperate. We can try your bat-flying offer"
The ranger let's the others cross first with Daud and waits patiently to be the last one. If the bat-man cannot make it up with his considerable weight, the half-elf has no problem at attempting to wade the river on his own.
"Okay, how did I do th-oh, right," Sunday murmurs to himself as giant wings sprout from his back and cocoon him, revealing a giant bat in his place a moment later. Looking to Yavenee and Elisai it crouches for them and gives a squeak.
"Yup!" Delendir waves at Daud from the water as he sunks while fighting against the currents "Help! I... *glup* *glup* need help he... *glup* ...re!!!"
Blinking, the giant bat reaches over to grab the soggy half-elf before he drowned in the mire.
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As Delendir began sputtering in the water, and Sunday started to dip down to try and reach him, there was a loud tearing sound as a whole was ripped in the rock near the fort. Bursting forth from it, resplendent in her armor once more as s shaft of sunlight glinted off of her, was Krysta. She spread her wings and took off, her body a more brilliant amethyst color than before and with hints of red around the edges she swooped down towards the floundering half-elf. She managed to cut under Sunday in a spectacular display of flying and reached out to grab at Delendir with her claws. It was very evident that she was considerably large than before she disappeared. She'd gone from the size of a dwarf to roughly the size of a large orc overnight.
Her talons shrieked on his armor as she grabbed him and then began to flap heavily with her wings, scatters of light glinting from their reflective surfaces. She had to work at it, he wasn't light soaked and in his gear, but she had the strength to do it now, even if it made her rather slow. She began to pull him towards the far shore as she tried to gain altitude and lift him from the waters.